


Homecoming

by aldiara



Category: Ronja Rövardotter | Ronia the Robber's Daughter - Astrid Lindgren
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Drabble Day 2016, Gen, Multi, Triple Drabble, Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 20:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8505010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aldiara/pseuds/aldiara
Summary: Ronja returns to the woods after a couple of years out in the world.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Crust" prompt on [Drabble Day 2015](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/drabbleday/).

When she was very small, Ronja remembers, she felt her world widen around her by degrees, expanding from her place under the table until it stretched to the green horizon of the woods. It’s odd how even this forest can seem small once you have been outside it. 

She nudges her horse onwards, suddenly so eager to arrive. To see her parents, all the robbers. Birk. 

As the horse picks its way between the trees, the size of the world readjusts gently, settling once more against the faraway unseen edge of the woods. 

She can’t wait for her mother’s bread.

***

Her ribs ache from all the hugs and she’s stuffed from the banquet, but nothing can stop her when Lovis brings out a fresh-baked loaf.

They all laugh as she tears into the golden crust. Her father laughs the hardest. “You’d think she’d not been gone for nearly two years, eating fancy pastries at the queen’s own court!”

Lovis rolls her eyes at him. “She didn’t go to see the world just to eat pastries, you lummox. And no one bakes bread like mine. Right, child?”

She feels her eyes fill with sudden, stupid tears. “No,” she murmurs. “No one.”

***

Birk has grown broad-shouldered and tall – so tall! – but he smiles at her like he used to, his entire face lit up. “I’ve missed you, my sister.”

“Sop.” She kicks his ankle but can’t help grinning back. “So… have you found a girl yet, then?”

His mother used to think it would be Ronja, but she has never understood either of them.

Birk clears his throat. He’s flushing slowly, all the way to his copper hair. “Well.” He plays with a crust of bread to avoid her gaze. “I… may have found a boy.”

Ronja stares, fascinated. “Tell. Me. EVERYTHING.”


End file.
